To Be Alone With You

12. shenanigans

warning: brief mention of eating disorders towards the end of the chapter, use of f-slur.

—

CHAPTER TWELVE

SHENANIGANS

—

The mall was always crowded, packed with teenagers who didn't really have anything better to do, adults who were frantically buying decorations for Christmas, and small ass children who wouldn't stop crying.

Kaspian hated it.

Rowan, on the other hand, loved it. Kaspian watched as a gleeful grin took over his face, just as the two of them entered the mall.

"Where do we go first?" Rowan asked, looking at Kaspian. "Do we buy your Christmas gifts first, or do we buy Stella's gifts first?"

"Stella. It's a lot easier to finish Stella's gifts first. Let's go to a makeup store," Kaspian urged, grabbing Rowan's hand and pulling him along.

Wait, should I be holding his hand? That's not weird, right? Does he think it's weird?

They walked in silence, until Rowan suddenly stopped in front of a girl who looked to be in her twenties. "I love your shoes!"

She blushed, pale cheeks turning pink. "Thank you!" She smiled shyly, and walked away, turning around and smiling again.

"That's why I love the mall," Rowan stated, going into a makeup store Kaspian couldn't recognise. That wasn't really a surprise, the only time he ever wore makeup was when Stella, North or Zahra did it for him.

"You love the mall because you can compliment random people here?"

Rowan laughed, picking up an eyeshadow palette. "I guess. As stupid as it sounds, I like making people smile. It's nice." Checking the price of the palette, his eyes widened comically. "Makeup is so fucking expensive, damn."

"Valid, I guess." Kaspian shrugged. "We can split the price of the palette. I don't think Stella will care too much, considering she's getting a god tier eyeshadow palette." At least, I hope it's a god-tier eyeshadow palette.

Rowan looked slightly shocked at that, but covered it up quickly. "Yeah. We can do that."

After they paid for the gift, and Rowan complimented two other people in the makeup store, they went to a video game store, much to Kaspian's distaste.

"I don't understand why we're here," Kaspian said, feeling out of place.

Rowan picked up a video game. "We're buying gifts for people. Atreya likes video games. What's not to understand?" His eyes scanned the price, and then they widened.

"Jesus. Do y'all buy each other gifts every year? This is a really fucking expensive ordeal."

Realisation dawned on Kaspian. "I'm so stupid."

"Okay, and?"

"Rude. Anyway. We do Secret Santa every year, I don't know if we forgot this year or if we're just late. Sorry, abort Christmas Gift Shopping mission." Kaspian wanted to smack himself because of his own stupidity.

Rowan stared at Kaspian blankly. "Is that a joke or?"

"No, quite serious."

Exhaling dramatically, Rowan walked out of the store. "Okay, well, we're at the mall, so we're going to have a fucking blast anyway."